AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL BRIEFING

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
BRIEFING
10 June 2015
Index: MDE 14/1801/2015
Burned houses in Sibaya © Amnesty International
Iraq: Revenge attacks in Sinjar – Arab civilians pay the price for IS crimes
Members of a Yezidi militia attacked two Arab villages, Jiri and Sibaya, in the Sinjar region of northwestern Iraq on 25 January 2015. They killed 21 civilians, half of them elderly men and women and
children, in what appear to have been execution-style killings, and injured several others, including
three children. 1 The gunmen also abducted some 40 residents, 17 of whom are still missing and
feared dead.
1
The Yezidis are ethnic Kurds who are members of a religious minority whose ancient religion has its roots in
Zoroastrianism and who worship an emanation of God known as the Peacock Angel. They have long been
subjected to discrimination and persecution by Muslims who consider them pagans and often accuse them of
“devil worshipping”.
Amnesty International visited the villages in April 2015 and found that the assailants had
systematically looted and burned homes and property, with virtually not a single house spared.
Survivors, who had to leave the villages, said that Yezidi acquaintances warned them not to return to
their villages; they live in fear they could be attacked again where they are sheltering. They told
Amnesty International that they recognized among the perpetrators some of their Yezidi neighbours
and long-time acquaintances from Gohbal and other nearby Yezidi villages who belong to a Yezidi
militia.2 Yezidi and Kurdish sources allege that fighters from the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) and their Syrian affiliate, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are operating in the Sinjar
area, also took part in the attack on the two villages.3
The attack appears to have been in revenge for the heinous crimes – massacres, mass abductions,
rape and sexual enslavement – perpetrated by the group which calls itself the Islamic State (IS)
against the Yezidi minority since it took control of the Sinjar region in August 2014.4 Many Yezidis
and other Kurds accuse their Arab neighbours of having joined the IS, or otherwise having cooperated with it, in committing atrocities against their communities and of having looted their
homes and property. In the wake of the IS attack on the area, Yezidi residents of the Sinjar region
formed a self-defence militia and together with Kurdish Peshmerga and fighters from neighbouring
countries recaptured areas north and east of Mount Sinjar from the IS, including Jiri and Sibaya in
late December 2014. The area has since been under Peshmerga control but Kurdish fighters from
neighbouring countries also operate there alongside the Yezidi militia. Yezidi fighters and residents
2
Amnesty International visited Jiri, Sibaya and surrounding areas on 16, 17 and 18 April 2015. Survivors,
witnesses and relatives of victims were interviewed on these dates in nearby villages where they are currently
sheltering.
3
Kurdish Turkish PKK and Syrian YPG fighters deployed to Sinjar to assist the Yezidis immediately after the IS
attack and have been operating in the area since then. See background section for more details.
4
The IS is also commonly known as ISIS, Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham. For more details about the IS’
crimes against the Yezidi community see, for example, Amnesty International, Ethnic cleansing on historic scale:
the Islamic State's systematic targeting of minorities in northern Iraq, 2 September 2014,
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/mde140112014en_0.pdf, and Amnesty International,
Escape from hell: Torture, sexual slavery in Islamic State captivity in Iraq, 23 December 2014,
https://www.amnesty.org/en/articles/news/2014/12/iraq-yezidi-women-and-girls-face-harrowing-sexual-violence/
(both accessed 3 June 2015).
commonly say that they do not want Arab residents to remain in the area.5
Residents told Amnesty International that on the morning of 25 January 2015, members of the
Peshmerga and Asayish security forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the
commander and members of a local Yezidi militia arrived in the two villages and Peshmerga forces
arrested more than 20 men. Most were released the same day or shortly after, while seven or eight
remain detained.6
Some of the 21 victims killed in Jiri and Sibaya on 25 January 2015 © Amnesty International
Residents of Jiri said that members of the Peshmerga and Asayish forces were still present in the
village for at least part of the time when Yezidi militia members subsequently attacked them and
looted their property but did not act to prevent or stop the attacks. They mentioned, however, that
some had alerted residents of the impending attack and later freed a group of abducted women and
children and delivered them to a safe area.
In the course of the attack on Jiri, Yezidi militias killed 10 men and a 15-year-old boy and injured
5
See, for example, Rudaw, “Yezidi survivors say they cannot forgive Arab complicity in ISIS atrocities”, 5
January 2015, http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/05012015 (accessed 3 June 2015). Most Yezidis from the
Sinjar region interviewed by Amnesty International since August 2014 have stated that they would not return to
Sinjar if the Arab residents remain in the area, with some calling for the removal of Arab communities from the
area and others saying that they wish to leave Iraq and settle in other countries outside the Middle East region.
6
Families of some of those still detained told Amnesty International that they had no information about the fate
or whereabouts of their detained relatives’ until they were contacted by the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), which told them that they were detained and where. The families said they had no information
about any charges against their detained relatives.
10 residents, including
three children. Most were
shot point-blank in and
around their homes and
three were taken by the
assailants and were later
found dead in nearby Yezidi
villages. By the time the
attackers reached Sibaya in
the afternoon, most of the
residents had fled, having
heard of the killings in Jiri.
The militias, however, did
not spare those who stayed
behind: they killed eight
men and women who were
elderly or had physical
disabilities and two
A bullet pierced a hole in this baby’s blanket © Amnesty International children. An Asayish
commander in Snuni, in the
Sinjar area, told Amnesty International that on the morning of 25 January 2015, Peshmerga and
Asayish forces went “to a terrorist village and there the Peshmerga were fired at and in the firefight
which ensued some Arabs were killed”.7 He would not provide further details but said:
“No women or children were killed. On the contrary, we saved more than 40 of them; we took
them to al-Na’im and handed them over to the Arab tribal leaders there. There are no missing
villagers; the 17 they say are missing are with Da’esh [Arabic acronym for the IS]. Most of the
Jhaish tribe are terrorists. I did not see any burning of houses but I don’t know what happened
after we left. Maybe it was done by angry Yezidi residents, or by the PKK. The Arabs had looted
everything from the Yezidi villages; in every house you enter in these Arab villages you find
fridges and property they looted from the Yezidis.”8
Yezidi militia commander Qasem Shesho told Amnesty International that there had been no firefight
in the village. He said:
7
Meeting with Asayish Deputy Director Ali Ahmad al-Bashki in Snuni, Sinjar region, 17 February 2015.
8
Ibid.
“On the morning of 25 January, the Peshmerga and
Asayish went to look for wanted men in these two
villages, who had been involved in the abduction of
Yezidi women and girls, and they asked me to go
along and I went with my fighters. I told them that
there should be no revenge, only what is permitted
by the law. There was no shooting from the villagers
and no exchange of fire. Some PKK and old
Ba’athists who are with the Peshmerga also went
there after I left. There are people who want to
cause trouble.”9
In a media interview Qasem Shesho said that PKK
and YPG10 fighters had attacked the villages,
abducted women and killed a Yezidi youth.11 Media
also reported that after the attack local Yezidi
leaders held a meeting, condemned the attack and
promised it would not be repeated.12
In the villages Amnesty International found spent
bullet cartridges and bullet holes in the walls of the
Looted and burned down house in Jiri
houses where witnesses said some of the victims
© Amnesty International
were killed.13 The testimonies of some 30 residents
of the two villages interviewed by Amnesty International provide consistent descriptions of the
attacks. Villagers interviewed by Amnesty International reject accusations that they participated in
the abduction of Yezidi women and girls and looted Yezidis’ property. Some maintain that, on the
contrary, they helped several Yezidi families to hide and escape from the area. Amnesty International
is not in a position to verify either the allegations against the villagers or their assertions to the
contrary. Only an independent and impartial investigation could help to establish the veracity or
otherwise of these conflicting claims, which, if true, would not in any case justify revenge killings
and abductions.
To prevent further revenge attacks, KRG authorities and the Peshmerga forces have tried to keep
9
Meeting with Qasem Shesho near Hardan, Sinjar region, 18 April 2015.
10
The Syrian People’s Protection Units, commonly known by their Kurdish acronym, YPG, are an offshoot of the
Turkish PKK, and are also often referred to as PKK.
11
BasNews, “Yazidi Commander: PKK and YPG Creating Tension between Kurds and Arabs”, 29 January 2015,
http://www.basnews.com/en/news/2015/01/29/yazidi-commander-pkk-and-ypg-creating-tension-between-kurdsand-arabs/ (accessed 3 June 2015).
12
Niqash, “The Sinjar Massacre: Yazidis Take Revenge Against Extremists’ Collaborators”, 29 January 2015,
http://www.niqash.org/en/articles/security/3613/Yazidis-Take-Revenge-Against-Extremists%E2%80%99Collaborators.htm (accessed 3 June 2015).
13
Had a firefight indeed taken place, there would have likely been bullet impacts on the walls of surrounding
houses.
Yezidi and Arab communities separate, but do not appear to have taken the necessary steps to
investigate the violations and bring the perpetrators to justice. Amnesty International asked the KRG
authorities in a letter sent on 22 May 2015 for information about the findings of any investigation
that had been carried out into the events. At the time of writing, the organization received no
response.
The abuses committed in the Jiri and Sibaya are serious violations of International Humanitarian
Law and some constitute war crimes. The KRG should ensure that the allegations are promptly,
thoroughly and independently investigated, that those responsible are held accountable and that the
fate and whereabouts of the 17 missing persons is clarified; if they are alive they should be freed
immediately and if they are dead their remains should be promptly handed over to their families.
Countries which provide military assistance to the KRG must put in place robust oversight
mechanisms to ensure that any equipment they provide to the KRG is not used to commit human
rights violations.14
Killings in Jiri
The father of two of the victims from Jiri, Younis and Sattar Shamdin Meri’i, aged 15 and 20, told
Amnesty International:
“When the Yezidi militia came to the village I was in the fields with some of our sheep. I called
Sattar and he said that the Yezidis had come and taken all our sheep from the house, 81 sheep,
and wanted him and his younger brother Younis to go help them carry the goods they were
looting from the houses in the village. We later heard from an old Yezidi friend that their bodies
were dumped in Gohbal, a nearby Yezidi village. The bodies were brought back and dumped in
Jiri the following day. They had been shot multiple times. I don’t know what reason they could
have to kill my sons.”
14
Countries reportedly providing military assistance (including some or all of the following: weapons, munitions,
other military equipment, training, direct participation through air strikes against IS targets) to the KRG include:
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.
The two boys’ younger brother,
12-year-old Raddad, was shot
four times in the back, chest,
arm and leg. The child told
Amnesty International that he
was injured while playing near
his home. Other villagers told
Amnesty International that
Raddad had been injured when
Yezidi militiamen shot and
killed their neighbour, Murad
Ghadir Dennu.
Nahla Meri’i, a 34-year-old
mother of five from Jiri, told
Amnesty International about
the killing of her husband,
Juma’a Habash Meri’i, 44, and
her eldest son, Salah, 19:
Location where Mohammed Habash Meri’i was killed in Jiri
© Amnesty International
“Two armed Yezidis in uniforms stormed into our home and told us to get out. We did as they
told us and as we got outside they shot my husband, and my son Salah. They killed them both.
They shot several times, at him and near him. One of the bullets went through the blanket in
which I had wrapped my baby, who I was holding in my arms. Luckily the bullet did not harm
the baby.”
Her sister-in-law, Kazala Meri’i, who lived next door, told Amnesty International:
“A group of some 15 Yezidis came to our home. Most were wearing military uniforms. They took
everything from the house: first the car, then the generator. A few of them came and went
several times carrying our possessions. Then they told us to get out. We went outside – me, my
husband, Mohammed Habash Meri’i, 34, and our three children. At that point there were four
militiamen. One of them shot my husband several times with a big rifle and killed him on the
spot in front of us, in front of the children.”
Mohammed’s and Juma’a’s brother, who lived next door, said that he had a lucky escape: “Two
militiamen came to my house and one of them pointed his rifle at me and said, ‘You are Da’esh’, but
the other one, who knew me, told him that I’m not Da’esh and to leave me alone, and they both
left.”
Shamsa Mohammed, a mother of nine in her 50s, told Amnesty International:
“A group of Yezidis in military uniforms came to the school [in Jiri] where we had been
staying for two weeks because our house was in an isolated place outside the village and we
were afraid that the Yezidis might come to attack us. They took a canister of cooking gas
and a generator and left. My husband, Zayan Ghadir Dennu, aged 61, was by the door. One
of the militiamen came and shot him. He fell on his back and died after one or two
minutes. He was shot in the chest.
Then other militiamen came and told us to
get out and put us in a pick-up vehicle. There
were about 20 of us: me, two of my
daughters, two of my daughters-in-law, my
cousin, and all the children. They also took
our relative Fathi Khider Khalaf, 43. He was
the only man they took with us; the rest of us
were women and children. They drove us to
Mujamma’a al-Andalus [a nearby Yezidi
village]. There they took Fathi away from us. I
heard two shots but did not see them kill
him, but later his body was brought back to
Jiri and dumped there. He had been shot in
the head twice. He left 20 children orphans.
ID card of Zayan Ghadir Dennu, 61, which he kept
in his breast pocket and was perforated by one of
the bullets which killed him © Amnesty
International
After they took Fathi away they wanted to
take us women and children to the jabal
[Mount Sinjar, the headquarters of the Yezidi
militias], but luckily the Peshmerga came
and saved us. They took us to al-Na’im, a
village near al-Rabe’a, where they handed us
over to Arab chiefs.”
Killings in Sibaya
By the time the assailants reached the nearby village of Sibaya the young and able-bodied had fled,
having already heard about the attack on Jiri from those who had escaped that village and having
been told by Yezidi militia commander Qasem Shesho to take their families and leave the area for
their safety. Consequently, most of those killed in Sibaya were men and women who were elderly or
had physical disabilities and could not run away and who thought that they would not be targeted.
The son of 70-year-old Mariam Salah Sultan told Amnesty International:
“My mother lived in al-Bayuna but was visiting my sister in Sibaya. When news that a massacre
was unfolding in Jiri spread, most people ran away but my mother was elderly and had
difficulties walking so she stayed with other elderly neighbours. They did not think that they
were at risk. But they were all killed. My sister now feels terrible for having left our mother
there, but she did not think she was in danger. She was killed in the house of her neighbour,
Jasem Mahmud Ali, who was 68 years old, together with other elderly neighbours.”
The bodies of two other elderly residents, Mariam Jasem Yousef and Khalaf Sa’id Mohammed, 66,
were also found in the same house, their relatives told Amnesty International.
Residents said that they feared being attacked if they went back to Sibaya. Some said that they had
waited for one or several days before venturing back to look for their relatives and collect their
bodies. A few said they sneaked into the village early the following morning to see what had
happened, and then informed the relatives of those they found dead. “We had to sneak into the
village like thieves, to find our relatives killed and our homes destroyed, because if the Yezidis see
us from the hills, they may come to attack us again,” the son of Khalaf Sa’id Mohammed told
Amnesty International.
Nadhir Ali Salah, the son of another slain elderly resident, told Amnesty International:
“My father, Ali Salah Khalaf, was 66 years old and was wheelchair-bound as the right half of his
body was completely paralyzed. We could not imagine that they would target the old and sick,
but they did. We found his body in his house. He had been shot dead in his wheelchair.”
The son of 78-year-old Ahmad Habib Mohammed described the horrific discovery of his father’s
body:
“He was alone in the house
as my brothers and I had
fled with the rest of the
village. When we came
back we found him in our
burned-down house. He
had been shot in the head
and chest and was
completely burned from the
waist down. It was an
unbearable sight. May God
have mercy on those who
committed such a terrible
crime against a defenceless
old man.”
Burned house in Sibaya © Amnesty International
Though most of the victims in
Sibaya were elderly or had physical disabilities, two were children – nine-year-old Jihad Matar
Ahmad and his 12-year-old brother Ahmad – who were killed together with their father, Matar
Ahmad Khalif. The children’s uncle told Amnesty International: “Perhaps my brother either did not
realize quickly enough that they were in danger, or the children were out with the sheep and by the
time he found them it was too late to escape, I don’t know. All I know is that they were killed.”
Abductions
Seventeen of those who were seized by Yezidi militiamen on 25 January from Jiri, 16 men and a 16year-old boy, remain unaccounted for and are feared dead. More than 20 women and children who
were rescued and delivered to a safe place by Peshmerga shortly after having been abducted by
Yezidi militiamen on the same day have no information about the 17 because they were not
abducted or held with them. Efforts by the families of the 17 to obtain information about their fate
and whereabouts have yielded no results to date.
A relative of three missing brothers told Amnesty International:
“The Peshmerga say they don’t know. The Yezidis sometimes say they don’t know and another
time say the 17 disappeared are dead. We don’t know what to believe. We just want to know the
truth. If our relatives are dead they should tell us and give us the bodies.”
Ftayem Mohammed Ahmad, a 25-year-old mother of two from Jiri, told Amnesty International:
“In the morning several Yezidi men dressed in civilian clothes came to our home and told my
husband to give them the car keys and also took some electrical goods and furniture. Then they
took my husband ‘Awad Mohammed Dennu and four of his brothers, Hamid, Hammad, Faruq
and ‘Imad. We don’t know where they took them or where they are now. We have no information
about them since they were taken. I’m afraid for my husband’s safety, for all of their safety. I
just need to know that he is alive, where he is.”
The mother of the five men, Anud Mohammed Khalil, in her mid-60s, told Amnesty International:
“First the Yezidis came and took our three cars, then they took five of my sons and then they
took us women and the children. I don’t know why they took us or what they wanted to do with
us. They said they were going to take us to the jabal [Mount Sinjar] but the Peshmerga
intervened and took us to a safe place. But now my five sons are still missing. We have asked
some of our old Yezidi friends to help us find them but there is no result. They were our krif
[blood brothers], like family, but now everything has been ruined and we have become worse
than strangers.”
Other villagers also told Amnesty International that the women and children had been promptly
released by the Peshmerga forces and that the Yezidi militia leader Qasem Shesho had called on
militiamen not to harm the women and to let them go.
Amira Mohammed Dennu, a 38-year-old mother of seven whose husband is among those killed in
Jiri, told Amnesty International:
“A Yezidi in civilian clothes first came and took our sheep; we had 25 sheep and he took them
all. Then a group of Yezidis in military uniforms came and took us women and the children to
the mosque. There Abu Khaled [Yezidi militia leader Qasem Shesho] came and told the
militiamen to let the women go.”
Background
The Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI, comprising the four northern governorates of Dohuk, Erbil,
Halabja and Sulaimaniya) is governed by the KRG as an autonomous region of Iraq, but has some
characteristics of an independent state – such as sole control over its borders with neighbouring
countries.15 The KRG has been dominated by the two leading Kurdish political parties: the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP), led by Mas’ud Barzani, the current President of the KRG; and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Jalal Talabani, former President of Iraq.
Historical rivalries between the KDP and PUK initially led to the establishment of two parallel
administrations each controlling its region of influence (Erbil-based KDP for the west and
15
The KRI has been an autonomous entity since 1991. A previous autonomy deal with the Iraqi central
government in 1970 was never implemented.
Sulaimaniya-based PUK for the east) and each with its own Peshmerga (military) and Asayish
(security or police) forces. Although in recent years KRG institutions have become more unified,
divisions along political party lines reportedly persist among Peshmerga and Asayish forces.
In June 2014 significantly more territory came under the control of the KRG as it deployed its forces
to secure the areas from which Iraqi central government forces fled in the face of the IS advance in
northern Iraq. These included much of the Nineveh governorate, home to many of Iraq’s ethnic and
religious minorities (including Yezidis, Christians, Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabak, Kakai and Sabian
Mandaeans, as well as many Shi’a Muslims, who are a majority in Iraq but were a minority in the
north of the country), and oil-rich Kirkuk, which has long been disputed between the KRG and the
Iraqi central government.
At the beginning of August 2014 the IS advanced further, overrunning most of the areas in the
Nineveh governorate which had come under Peshmerga control two months earlier and forcing
hundreds of thousands from their homes, the overwhelming majority of them from minority
communities. The IS targeted the Yezidis from the Sinjar region with particular brutality. It
massacred hundreds of men and boys and abducted thousands of other individuals, mostly women
and children, subjecting many to rape and sexual enslavement.
Some Yezidis promptly formed an armed militia to protect the Yezidis who remained on Mount Sinjar
(the only part of the Sinjar region which had not fallen under IS control) and to try to recapture the
surrounding area from the IS. The Yezidi militia has been operating alongside, and with the
assistance of, Peshmerga forces as well as Turkish PKK and Syrian YPG fighters.16 Syrian YPG
fighters initially played a major role in securing a safe passage for displaced Yezidis stranded on
Mount Sinjar in dire conditions to escape through IS-held territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border
(initially the only possible escape route from Mount Sinjar to the KRI was through YPG-held areas of
Syria).17 Many Yezidis, including the Yezidi militia commander and members, blamed the
Peshmerga for not resisting the IS takeover of Sinjar and for withdrawing without warning the
Yezidis, leaving them at the mercy of the advancing IS.18 Such tensions between the Yezidis and the
Peshmerga also exist between the Yezidis, on the one hand, and PKK and YPG fighters, on the
16
See, for example, interviews with Yezidi militia leader Qasim Shesho in Mount Sinjar area: Rudaw, “Yezidi
Fighter: We Must Stay and Defend our Lands”, 21 August 2014,
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/210820142; Z News, “We want international community to help
Yezidis: Qasim Shesho”, 1 October 2014, http://zeenews.india.com/exclusive/we-want-international-communityto-help-yezidis-qasim-shesho_1478444.html; and and YouTube, Iraq YPG in Shengal captured ISIS Tank, 7
August 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h0qfW3usAo (all accessed 8 June 2015).
17
On 10 August 2014 Amnesty International visited the YPG-held area of north-eastern Syria, as thousands of
Yezidis were arriving from Mount Sinjar, where they had been trapped since the IS attack on 3 August. Those
interviewed said that Yezidi and Syrian YPG fighters had helped them to escape from Mount Sinjar. On 18 April
2015 Amnesty International saw YPG/PKK fighters operating along Peshmerga in the north of Mount Sinjar.
18
Rudaw, “Yezidi Fighter: We Must Stay and Defend our Lands”, 21 August 2014,
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/210820142 (accessed 3 June 2015); Al-Monitor, “Peshmerga look to
restore image after defeats”, 23 September 2014, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/ru/originals/2014/09/iraqkurdish-forces-peshmerga-gain-ground-is.html#ixzz3EkBR27qE (accessed 3 June 2015).
other, as well as within the Peshmerga itself.19
Between September and late December 2014, Yezidi, PKK and YPG fighters and Peshmerga forces
recaptured several towns and villages north of Mount Sinjar, including Jiri and Sibaya. While
Peshmerga forces are operating alongside the Yezidi militia and PKK and YPG fighters in the Sinjar
region, it is not clear how much oversight the KRG and its Peshmerga forces have over these
groups.20
List of victims
Killed in Jiri:
Khider Salah Dennu
Aza’ayan Ghadir Dennu
Murad Ghadir Dennu
Fathi Khider Khalaf
Salah Abdallah Salah
Mohammed Habash Meri’i
Juma’a Habash Meri’i
Salah Juma’a Meri’i
Sattar Shamdin Meri’i
Younis Shamdin Meri’i (Child)
Faysal Aza’ayan Ghadir
Killed in Sibaya:
Ahmad Habib Mohammed
Khalaf Sa’id Mohammed
Jasem Mahmud Ali
Ali Salah Mohammed
19
International Crisis Group, Arming Iraq’s Kurds: Fighting IS, Inviting Conflict, 12 May 2015,
http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/Middle%20East%20North%20Africa/Iraq%20Syria%20Lebanon/Iraq/1
58-arPeshmerga and Syrian Kurdish Forces Agree to Fight Together for Shingalming-iraq-s-kurds-fighting-isinviting-conflict.pdf; Daily Sabah, “Peshmerga: YPG’s mistake prevented us from capturing Sinjar”, 13 January
2015, http://www.dailysabah.com/mideast/2015/01/13/peshmerga-ypgs-mistake-prevented-us-from-capturingsinjar; BasNews, “PKK Helps Arabs to Return to Liberated Areas of Sinjar”, 11 February 2015,
http://www.basnews.com/en/news/2015/02/11/pkk-helps-arabs-to-return-to-liberated-areas-of-sinjar/ (all
accessed 8 June 2015).
20
Rudaw, “Peshmerga and Syrian Kurdish Forces Agree to Fight Together for Shingal”, 10 September 2014,
http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/100920141 (accessed 8 June 2015); BasNews, “PKK Helps Arabs to Return
to Liberated Areas of Sinjar”, 11 February 2015, http://www.basnews.com/en/news/2015/02/11/pkk-helps-arabsto-return-to-liberated-areas-of-sinjar/ (accessed 8 June 2015).
Matar Ahmad Khalif
Ahmad Matar Ahmad (Child)
Jihad Matar Ahmad (Child)
Kasra Mahmud Mohammed (F)
Mariam Salah Sultan (F)
Mariam Jasem Yousef (F)
Abducted in Jiri:
Hamid Mohammd Dennu
Awad Mohammed Dennu
Omar Mohammed Dennu
Hamad Mohammed Dennu
Faruq Mohammed Dennu
Ghadir Salah Dennu
Samir Salah Dennu
Mahmud Salah Dennu
Salah Mohammed Ghadir
Ala Mohammed Ghadir
AbdulSattar Khider Salah
Ahmad Elias Mahmud
Mohammed Elias Mahmud
Elias Mahmud Khalif
Jasem Hassan Mohammed
Hassan Mohammed Khalil
Ahmad Bilal Meri’i